An experienced natural history and botanical illustrator, Lizzie’s work appears in books and magazines around the world, on postage stamps and mugs. She lives very happily in Hay on Wye, and works her garden studio surrounded by plants and birds.
Explore my website and discover:
If you’re interested in finding out what I’m working on at the moment, follow my blog or find me on instagram.
For details of Lizzie’s workshops, exhibitions, and information about greetings cards and ordering prints, click on the links.
Below are some links to Lizzie’s latest blogs and Instagram posts.
Thus is the White Admiral butterfly, Limenitis camilla.
Young butterflies are richly dark in colour, but fade to a tawnier brown shade over time. The underside of the wings are rusty brown and white, and are beautifully marked.
They have a leisurely gliding flight, preferring dappled woodland and rides.
This butterfly has a particular taste for blackberry flowers and can often be seen on brambles basking in the sun. Although I'm yet to see one... (all wildlife guides say "can often be seen...." about all sorts of plants and animals. This makes me feel that I'm unobservant, that my rubbish eyesight really let's me down, or that our definitions of "often" differ...)
The only foodplant of the White Admiral is the honeysuckle.
In recent years populations have increased, possibly because there's less coppicing so there's more honeysuckle in the patchy woodland the butterflies favour, or possibly because of the warmer climate that comes with global warming.
It's been a lovely species to illustrate - all the richness of the purples and browns, blacks and blues adding together to give a depth of colour.
#sciart #naturalhistoryillustration #naturalscienceillustration #wildlifeart #butterflies #whiteadmiral #limenitis #lepidoptera #butterflyart #entomologicalart #notahobby #watercolour #watercolor #entomology
Tickets now on sale to come and see me and @hedgerowguru talking @hayfestival
https://www.hayfestival.com/p-18775-adele-nozedar-and-lizzie-harper-talk-to-andy-fryers.aspx
It's Thursday 26 May 2022, 2.30pm
I hope to do some "colouring in" as well as chatting about The Tree Forager, The Hedgerow Handbook with Adele. Fingers crossed we wont get the giggles....
Please join us!
#HayFestival2022 #hayfestival #treeforager #hedgerowhandbook #foraging #botanicalillustration #botanicalart #illustration #notahobby
Detail of a completed illustration of Honeysuckle for a client.
The honeysuckle in my hedge isn't out yet, although the leaves and purple stems are looking very healthy.
But further down the road there's some out in the hedge, so I nabbed that. Life's always much easier with refeence!
The client wanted orange and dark yellow shadows instead of the pinks of the wild honeysuckle, Lonicera periclymenum. This meant finding ref of an orange cultivar such as Tellman's honeysuckle, and creating a hybrid.
The leaves are amazing, submerge them in a glass of water and they look like they're made of thin silver, thanks to the hydrophobic qualities of the leaf blade. Very pretty.
#lonicera #lonicerapericlymenum #honeysuckle #botanicalillustration #botanicalart #flowerart #flowerpainting #flowers #wildflowers #notahobby #naturalnistoryillustration
This week's blog focuses on wild Geranium species, especially British species.
https://lizzieharper.co.uk/2022/05/geraniums-cranes-bills-and-storks-bills/
It's a guest blog by the erudite local naturalist Stewart Roberts - thanks due to him for such a good overview.
So if you want to know your Crane'sbill from your storks bill, and how our pot plant geraniums are linked to the pink Herb Robert plant, have a read.
The architectural shapes of the seedpods of these flowers are a joy to draw, and many of the flowers are beautiful colours. They're a great place to look for variety, colour, and good drawing subjects.
#botanicalart #botanicalillustration #flowerart #wildflowers #flowrs #paintingflowers #notahobby #botany #similarspecies #geranium #geraniumfamily
This is Cardamine preatense, known as Cuckoo flower, and Ladies smock.
It's out now, covetring fields with delicate pink blooms.
You can eat the whole plant - it has a delicious peppery flavour.
It's also one of the foodplants of the Orange tip butterfly, along with Garlic mustard.
This illustration will be in the Brecknockshire Flora, not least cause its the county flower for Brecknockshire.
#botanicalillustration #botanicalart #cuckooflower #ladiessmock #cardamine #wildflowers #foraging #foodforfree #Flora #brecknockshire
This is a close up of a Tulip done for a client, and painted from a bloom that obligingly was growing in the garden.
Some colour gradations are really tricky to illustrate, but reds to yellows are easy as the intermediate oranges look lovely.
I'd like to know what sort it is (possibly Tulipa bestseller?) but it came from a big mixed sack of bulbs so I don't really have a clue!
It's been a dream job this one; just focussing on a series of individual flowers. So nice to leave the greens in the paint-box for once!
#gardenflowers #gardening #tulip #tulips #tulipbulb #gardenbulb #bulbs #springbulbs #gardencolour #springcolour #flowerart #tulipfever #flowerpainting #flowerillustration #botanicalart #botanicalillustration #decorativeart #floral #traditional #byhand #notahobby #watercolour
I'm really pleased to be able to share some of the illustrations I've done for "The Hidden Universe" by Alex Antonelli in this week's blog:
https://lizzieharper.co.uk/2022/04/the-hidden-universe-pen-and-ink-illustrations/
The book is concise, beautifully produced, and carries an important and hopeful message. I loved working on the illustrations, many of which had to illustrate entire ecological concepts! I learned loads and enjoyed the work enormously.
So if you want to know how I went about illustrating the concept of "Re-wilding", or a very rare Cretan orchid, all in pen and ink...take a look.
Alex will be talking about the book at Hay Festival on 29th May, and I'm looking forward to hearing him there.
#naturalhistoryillustrations #ecocystems #bookillustration #penandink #rewilding #ecology #orchidbee #beaver #yellowstone #notahobby #monochrome
@penguinbooks @penguinrandomhouse
Foxglove Digitaria purpurea
Thus is a close up of one flower, they flower to form a turret of purple flowers. Nobe are in bud yet, but the velvety basal rosettes of leaves are looking larger and stronger each day.
Foxgloves are important for pollinating insects like bumble bees, and have special hairs which work as gates to stop smaller insects from accessing their nectar without being useful pollinators.
As a child I'd put a foxglove on each finger tip and am still amazed by how silky the petals feel.
Don't forget that foxglove produces cardiac glycosides, now used to treat heart disease. However, eating any part of a foxglove can cause lots of nasty symptoms including nausea and skin irritation as the whole plant is poisonous.
#foxglove #poison #poisonousplants #cardiacglycosides #digitaria #digitalis #digitalispurpurea #wildflowers #botanicalillustration #flowerart #botanicalart #fox glove
Lizzie has many original illustrations for sale.
In all cases, email her on info@lizzieharper.co.uk if you’d like to buy one of these natural history paintings, drawings, or studies.
Below is an illustrated list of all her original work currently on sale, divided into framed and unframed categories, and subject matter.
